Biography

Birth: Arthur Dickrell was born on January 30, 1900.

Death: He died on June 29, 1933, at age 33.

Burial: He was buried in St Anna, Calumet Co, Wisconsin.

Note: Arthur Dickrell is the Victim of Poison Murder in County.Attempt to Murder Whole Family Made.Poisoning of Man, Woman and Four Children is Believed to be Act of PersonSuffering with a Diseased Mind – Mother and Her Children Are in Serious Condition.

Arthur Dickrell, 33-year-old Town Russell farmer, is dead, his wife and fourchildren are in serious condition in Plymouth hospital, and two others are underthe care physicians as the result of arsenic poisoning with which they becameafflicted over a week ago.The case, which is one the most tragic and pathetic that has come to the attentionof the county authorities in many years, is being thoroughly investigated. It maytake several days before responsibility for the poisoning will be known. Indicationsare that Mrs. Dickrell put arsenic in the food, but authorities have not attacheddefinite blame to her yet.A pathetic sidelight of the case is that besides being the mother of four children,the eldest of whom is seven and the youngest, two, Mrs. Dickrell is to become themother of a fifth child.Mr. Dickrell died in Plymouth hospital at 5 a.m. today. He had been ill for abouta week, and his condition grew more serious each day until yesterday when Dr. SteveO’Donnell of Kiel advised his removal to the hospital in an ambulance.Mrs. Dickrell, who is 36 years old, has been in the hospital since Tuesday. Hercondition was pronounced as critical.The four Dickrell children, Frances Marie, aged 2; Ambrose and Anthony, twins,aged 5 and Joseph, aged 7, were taken to hospital this morning. All the childrenare in a weakened condition, and will require most careful attention.Miss Elfrieda Schmitz of the town of Russell, who was employed to assist Mrs.Dickrell during the past eight weeks, became ill Sunday, and went home. She didnot know the cause of her illness. Today, Miss Schmitz and Joseph Klapperich, ofSt. Ann, father of Mrs. Dickrell, who had occasionally visited his daughter’s home,were taken to Plymouth hospital for examination, and both are under the care ofphysicians.Sheriff Ernst Zehms said after an investigation today that a petition asking thatMrs. Dickrell be examined for her sanity has been filed with County Judge F.H.Schlichting, and that in all probability the examination will be conducted, if Mrs.Dickrell recovers from her present critical condition.A post mortem examination of the body of Mr. Dickrell was conducted this morning byCoroner C.N. Sonnenburg. A portion of the stomach was removed, and Dr. Sonnenburgtook it to Madison, where it was to be examind by a state toxicologist.First knowledge of the illness of Dickrell family was gained by relatives lastFriday night, when Miss Catherine Dickrell, sister of Arthur, who is employed inthe office of Dr. Edmund Knauf of Sheboygan, visited the farm, which is on CountyHighway H, four miles south of St. Ann.Miss Dickrell was accompanied by William Moritz, her fiance, of Milwaukee, shetold The Sheboygan Press today.After Miss Dickrell had visited the Arthur Dickrell home, she went to the home ofanother brother, Nick Dickrell, who resides a short distance from his brother’sfarm, and told him and members of his family that the entire Arthur Dickrell familywas ill.“Arthur went to Dr. O’Donnell at Kiel, Thursday night,” Miss Dickrell told The Press.“He told the doctor that he and others of his family were suffering from stomachdisorders that caused them to vomit frequently. The doctor gave him some medicineto give to them, and he returned.“Arthur thought the doctor would go to the farm Friday, but he did not go. Inotified the doctor Saturday, and he went out and examined Arthur and his wife andthe children.”Miss Dickrell said she and Mrs. Moritz went back to Elkhart Lake, where her parentsreside, and stayed there Friday night, returning to the farm to assist in the farmwork Saturday, and again Sunday. After that, Armin Gross of St. Ann was engagedto carry on the farm work. He has been assisted from time to time since then byrelatives and others residing in the neighborhood.Interviewed by The Sheboygan Press today, Mr. Gross said he had been eating hismeals away from the Dickrell place.Miss Madeline Deville of St. Ann has been taking care of the household duties sinceyesterday, and she has prepared her own meals, she said.After attention was called to the illness of the members of the Dickrell familyFriday, neighbors became alarmed, fearing that a strange malady had seized them andthat it might be contagious. Relatives were frequent visitors to the Dickrell homeafter that.On Monday evening a number of relatives gathered outside the home and were discussingthe situation, Nick Dickrell said. During that time Mrs. Dickrell made statementswhich indicated that she had poisoned her husband, children and herself, Mr. Dickrelldeclared.“We were standing outside talking,” said Nick Dickrell, when Mrs. (Arthur) Dickrell,who had been watching us from the window, came out.“She said, ‘You are acting as if you think I poisoned them’ (Mr. Dickrell and thechildren). If you will come in the house I will tell you all about it.”Nick Dickrell stated that he and the others followed the woman in the house, andthat she made a lengthy explanation.“She said that she had wanted to kill the children for a long time,” Mr. Dickrellcontinued.‘Once she took two of them in an automobile with intention of gassing them, but shedidn’t quite know how to do it, she told us.“Another time, she said, she went to Kiel and bought some strychnine, which she hadplanned to give the members of her family. She changed her mind about that, however,and took it back to Kiel. We haven’t investigated yet, so we don’t know whether shetold us the truth about that or not.“We asked her way she wanted to kill her family, and she said, ‘The children aredamned, Arthur is damned, I am damned, we are all damned, so we might as well alldie. That’s the reason.’“After we heard her story, we concluded that her mind must have been affected. Shehad been acting somewhat strangely for a long time.”Mr. Dickrell said his brother and wife had not had any serious trouble so far as heknew. “They had little quarrels occasionally, the same as any man and wife have, Isuppose,” he said. “But otherwise they seemed to get along all right.”Coroner Sonnenburg said Dr. O’Donnell told him that Mrs. Dickrell is expecting afifth child, and that this might have affected her mind.Mrs. Dickrell did not reveal how she poisoned her husband and children, and it wasnot until yesterday that she was suspected of having put arsenic in their food.Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Klapperich, parents of Mrs. Arthur Dickrell, went to the homeyesterday to help with the farm work. They planned to spray a field of potatoeswith arsenic, and they stopped on the way to Elkhart Lake to ascertain how mucharsenic the Dickrells had from last year’s supply.They asked Arthur Dickrell where he kept his arsenic, and were informed that it wason the pantry floor under a shelf with a cover over it.Nick Dickrell stated that Mr. and Mrs. Klapperich searched for the poison, but couldnot find it in the place described by Mr. Dickrell. Finally they found it on a pantryshelf. It had been uncovered, and appeared as though it had been used recently, Mr.Dickrell said. Then it was concluded that Mrs. Dickrell had administered poison toher family and herself in food. When questioned about it today, she denied it,Questioned by Sheriff Zehms, Miss Schmitz said that while she was employed by Mrs.Dickrell, it was her duty to start preparation of bread and other food, and thatMrs. Dickrell finished the work.“I never saw her put anything in the food,” Miss Schmitz was quoted by the sheriffas having said. “But every time I ate bread or potatoes, I became nauseated and hadvomiting spells. Others of the family suffered the same way as I did.”Miss Schmitz said Mrs. Dickrell acted strangely at times, according to the sheriff.The arsenic, as well as bread that Mrs. Dickrell had baked recently, other food shehad prepared, and ingredients used in the preparation of foods for the family, wereturned over to the county authorities today.Mr. Dickrell, who was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Dickrell of Elkhart Lake, andMrs. Dickrell, nee Mary Klapperich, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Klapperich ofSt. Ann, were married about eight years ago.(This article includes pictures of the family members and the family home with acaption.)Sheboygan Press, Thurs. June 29, 1933, p. 1, c. 1***********Plan Inquest in Poison Case. Arsenic Was Given in Food; Quiz Woman.Mrs. Arthur Dickrell, Widow of Poisoned Man, Proves Incoherent WhenInterviewed by the District Attorney and Sheriff.

Following a conference today, District Attorney Charles A. Copp and CoronerC.N. Sonnenburg ordered an inquest to determine all the facts surroundingthe death in Plymouth hospital early Thursday of Arthur Dickrell, town ofRussell.A jury was to be drawn this afternoon, and was to view the remains of Mr.Dickrell at the home on Highway H, four miles south of St. Ann at 5 p.m.The inquest will be held at the city hall in Plymouth at 9 a.m. Monday.Coroner Sonnenburg took a portion of Mr. Dickrell’s stomach to Madisonafter he had performed a post mortem examination Thursday, and it is to beexamined there by the state toxicologist. Dr. Sonnenburg expects to have areport of the findings Saturday afternoon.Everything indicates that Mr. Dickrell’s death and the serious illness ofhis wife and four children, Miss Elfrieda Schmitz, who was employed by theDickrells, and Joseph Klapperich, father of Mrs. Dickrell, is the resultof arsenic poison administered through food, District Attorney Copp said.Definite responsibility for placing the poison in the food has not beenplaced as yet.“Yesterday, I investigated the case as far as it was possible,” Mr. Coppsaid. “In company with Sheriff Ernst Zehms, I visited the Plymouth hospitaland questioned Mrs. Dickrell, but her condition was such that I could nottalk to her as much as I wanted to. Her conversation was entirely incoherent,and I decided to wait until today to continue my questioning, hopeful that hercondition will be somewhat improved, and that she may divulge her connectionwith the case.”“Up to the present time,” Mr. Copp stated, “there is no direct evidence as tohow the poison got into the food.”The district attorney asserted that he had interviewed a number of relativesand acquaintances of the Dickrells, and that everyone who has any informationto offer in regard to the cause of death of Mr. Dickrell and the illness ofseven others will have the opportunity to give it to the coroner’s jury.The condition of two of the Dickrell children and of Miss Schmitz is stilserious, Dr. Steven O’Donnell of Kiel, who is attending them, stated today.Dr. O’Donnell corrected an impression created by a statement of Miss CatherineDickrell in yesterday’s article that he had been called to the Dickrell farmThursday to attend members of the family.“Arthur Dickrell came to me Thursday evening and claimed that he and his familywere suffering from stomach flu,” Dr. O’Donnell said. “He diagnosed the caseshimself, and did not ask me to do it. He said he and his family had been illfor about a month, and he wanted a bottle of medicine to cure their illness.“I said that, if he and his family had been sick a month, their cases should beinvestigated immediately or at the latest the following morning. But, accordingto Mr. Dickrell’s opinion that was not necessary. He thought a bottle ofmedicine would do the work. This was contrary to my opinion, but I did not feelthat I should go without being asked.“Mr. Dickrell said that when he needed my services further, he would notify me.I received my first call to go out to the farm at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, and I wentout. I diagnosed the cases as being the result of poison of some kind, andtreated the patients accordingly.”Mrs. Joseph Klapperich, mother of Mrs. Dickrell, and a Kiel physician who hadpreviously attended Mrs. Dickrell and who had known her several years, said shehad acted peculiarly for some time, District Attorney Copp said, however,according to Coroner Sonnenburg.Mrs. Klapperich stated that her daughter had complained of “having somethingwrong with her head,” but that her husband did not want to send her to aninstitution because of his deep affection for her.Before her marriage, Mrs. Dickrell had been employed in a Kiel physician’s office,and she had gone to him for treatment after that. A few months ago, according tothe district attorney, the Kiel physician observed a difference in her mentalattitude.Mrs. Klapperich stated that she and her husband and a farm hand, Joseph Stanz, hadall eaten some of the bread in which poison had been placed, and that they hadbecome ill afterward.“I didn’t know what was wrong with the bread, but it didn’t taste right and I didn’teat much of it,” she declared. “My husband and Art ate a good deal of it, though.”Sheboygan Press, Fri. June 30, 1933, p. 1, c. 1**********Mrs. Dickrell Removed to County Asylum. Hold Rites for Victim of Poison.Mrs. Dickrell Taken to Asylum for Treatment – Await Word from Madison.Mrs. Arthur Dickrell, whom county authorities suspect of having poisoned her husbandand seven others at their Town of Russell home, resulting in Mr. Dickrell’s deathlast Thursday, is in the Sheboygan county hospital for the insane pending furtherinvestigation of the poisoning case.An order temporarily committing her there was signed Saturday by County Judge F.H.Schlichting, and she was removed from Plymouth hospital to the county institutionby Sheriff Ernst C. Zehms on Saturday afternoon.District Attorney Charles A. Copp stated that Mrs. Dickrell’s condition was suchthat it became necessary to send her to the insane hospital in order to give herthe kind of treatment she requires.Funeral services for Mr. Dickrell were conducted at the Catholic church at St.Ann on Saturday by the Rev. Father J.H. Schmitt. The church was packed to capacity,and a large crowd stood outside while the services were under way. The funeral wasone of the largest ever held in the vicinity of St. Ann.Due to the condition of Mrs. Dickrell and her children, none of the immediatemembers of the family was able to attend the funeral.Coroner C.N. Sonnenburg has not received the findings of the state toxicologiston his examination of a portion of Mr. Dickrell’s stomach which was taken toMadison for examination by Coroner Sonnenburg after a post mortem examinationhad been conducted the day of his death. It may be received about Thursday,after which a coroner’s inquest will be conducted in Plymouth.Members of the coroner’s jury are: Clyde Ellis of Elkhart Lake, Milton Timm andArthur Seefeldt of Plymouth, George Knoblauch and Robert Mauer of Elkhart Lake,and Joseph Spatt of Sheboygan.A can of arsenate of lead, bread and other food believed to contain arsenate oflead have also been taken to the state toxicologist for examination and report.The condition of Miss Elfrieda Schmitz, who was employed by the Dickrells untila week ago Sunday when she became ill after eating food alleged to have containedpoison, is unchanged at Plymouth hospital today, it was reported. The four Dickrellchildren are reported improving, as is Joseph Klapperich, father of Mrs. Dickrell,who was examined at the hospital and who is still under a physician’s observation.Funeral services for Arthur Dickrell were held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Ann’schurch. The Holy Name Society led the cortege with their banner draped in mourningand escorted the body to the cemetery for burial.“There are times when condolence seems sheer mockery,” the Rev. Father Schmittsaid during the course of his remarks to relatives of the deceased. “Human wordsof sympathy are inadequate mitigate or alleviate the sorrowing and bleeding heartof the bereaved relatives and friends on an occasion of this kind. When human aidis exhausted, we must take refuge in God, the Author and Source of holy religion.”Pallbearers were Edward and Nick Jeanty, John Wieseckle, Irwin and Walter Roederand Armin Gross.Among those who attended the services from away were Mr. and Mrs. John Klapperickand family of Kiel, Mr. and Mrs. Anton Klapperick and family of New Holstein, Mr.and Mrs. Ed Casper, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Casper, Mrs. Peter Casper, Mr. and Mrs. HubertCasper of Marytown, Joseph Nett, Joseph Stephany and Joseph Wagner of Johnsburg,Mrs. Matt Wagner of Calvary, Mr. and Mrs. William Wagner of St. Joe, Mr. and Mrs.John Jeanty of Stockbridge, Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Huberty of Kiel, Mr. and Mrs.Theodore Huberty of Kiel, Mr. and Mrs. Mueller of St. Cloud, Mrs. Peter J. Schmitzand daughter, Eleanor, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Weber and Mrs. Tille Lacroix of Marytown,Mrs. William Sievert, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Sievert and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Lacroix andfamily of Steinthal, Mr. and Mrs. Nic Michels, Mr. and Mrs. John Jost and family,Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Pul, Emil Becker and Mrs. Mathew Becker of Kiel, Mr. and Mrs.Andrew Michels, Mrs. Eliza Mushberger, Mrs. Theresa Hoeflier of Elkhart Lake,Mr. and Mrs. Anton Dohr, Ed Dohr, Mr. and Mrs. Norbert Dohr and Mathew Winkelsof Hilbert, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Lacroix of Glenbeulah, Silvan Klehr of Random Lake,Ed Grabinger of Fredonia, John P. Stahl and family and Jacob Grabinger of Batavia,John Michels, Mrs. R. Hanke and Alfred Mushberger and family of Sheboygan, Mrs.John Dickrell, John N. Dickrell, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Dorn, Mrs. Ed Schang, Mrs.Cleo Nelli, William Moritz and Mrs. F.J. Fichter of Milwaukee, Henry Schram andfamily of Cleveland, Wis., John Schram and family of Spring Valley, and Mr. andMrs. Andrew Dickrell and family of Appleton.The deceased, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Dickrell of Elkhart Lake, was born Jan.30, 1900, in the town of Russell. He lived in the town of Russell all his lifeand was a devout member of the Catholic church and a member of the Holy Namesociety since its organization.Sheboygan Press, Mon. July 3, 1933, p. 1, c. 5***********Find Poison Caused Death of Arthur Dickrell. Arsenic in Flour Also, is Finding.Plot to Murder an Entire Family is Obvious in Report from Toxicologist.Re: Arthur Dickrell (Deceased) Preliminary examination of materials in case showsthat the stomach and contents, sample of bread and flour, all contain arsenic. Inall probablilty this is a case of acute arsenic poisoning. Letter follows. R.P.Herwick, State Toxicologist.District Attorney Charles A. Copp received the foregoing message from StateToxicologist R.P. Herwick of Madison today. The message is a preliminary reporton the examination of the portion of stomach of Arthur Dickrell, Town Russell farmer,who died of arsenic poisoning, together with bread and flour which were sent to himfor examination. It bears out the theory that Arthur Dickrell was a murder victimand that an attempt was made to murder the entire Dickrell family by putting arsenicin their food. The findings of the state toxicologist make wholesale murder plotbeyond any doubt since it shows that even the flour, which Attorney Copp scooped upout of the flour bin in the Dickrell home and which was used in making bread for theentire family, contained the deadly arsenic poison. Mr. Copp stated following receiptof the telegram that he will await the detailed report of the state toxicologist,which will probably arrive late today or tomorrow, after which the inquest will beheld. Mr. Dickrell died in Plymouth hospital after a violent illness which wrackedhis whole system. Mrs. Dickrell, who was thought to have eaten some of the foodcontaining the poisoning and who has been questioned at length by District AttorneyCopp as to her connection with the poison plot, has been in the Sheboygan countyhospital for the insane since last Saturday evening. She is believed insane andwas removed to the county institution because it was deemed a place where she wouldreceive proper care pending the murder inquiry. Miss Elfrieda Schmitz, who wasemployed as a maid on the Dickrell farm, is still in serious condition in Plymouthhospital as the result of having eaten food containing the poison. The four Dickrellchildren are improving at Plymouth hospital, but are not entirely out of danger,according to hospital reports. Joseph Klapperich, father of Mrs. Dickrell, who alsoate some of the poisoned food, is out of danger. All those who suffered from thepoison are under the observation of physicians.Sheboygan Press, Thurs. July 6, 1933, p. 1, c. 8**********Jury Directs Blame to Mrs. Arthur Dickrell. Testimony is Given at Plymouth.Arsenic Poisoning Given as the Cause of Death of Arthur Dickrell.(By Staff Reporter). Plymouth, Wis. –A coroner’s jury at noon today concluded that Arthur Dickrell, town of Russellfarmer, died at Plymouth hospital on June 29, 1933, from arsenic poisoning byeating bread prepared by Mrs. Mary Dickrell, and expressed a belief that Mrs.Dickrell was responsible for the death.The full text of the verdict, which was returned by the jury composed of ClydeEllis of Elkhart Lake, Milton Timm, George Knoblauch and Arthur Seefeldt ofPlymouth, Joe Spatt of Sheboygan, and Robert Maurer of Elkhart Lake, follows:“An inquisition taken at Plymouth, Wis., in the county of Sheboygan on the 20thday of July, 1933, before C.N. Sonnenburg, coroner of said county, upon the viewof the body of Arthur Dickrell, there dead, by the jurors, whose names arehereunto subscribed, who being duly sworn to inquire in behalf of this state when,in what manner, and by what means the said Arthur Dickrell came to his death, uptheir oaths do say, Arthur Dickrell died on June 29, 1933, at Plymouth hospitalat 5:10 a.m., from arsenic poisoning by eating bread prepared by Mrs. Mary Dickrell,his wife, and we believe Mrs. Mary Dickrell to be responsible for said death.”Testimony of fourteen witnesses corroborated information contained in SheboyganPress accounts of the death of Mr. Dickrell and illness of others. That Mrs.Dickrell had acted strangely and was probably demented, that she had intendedon former occasions to kill members of her family, once by giving them strychnineand once by taking the children in the family automobile with a plan to asphyxiatethem, was borne out in testimony at the inquest.Witnesses said Mrs. Dickrell had on one occasion tried to buy strychnine from aveterinarian, had actually purchased an eighth of an ounce at a Kiel drug storeat another time, but had returned it, and that she also admitted she wanted toasphyxiate the children with carbon monoxide gas from their automobile, but gaveup because she did not know how to do it. Several of the witnesses also testifiedthat the woman appeared to have been mentally deranged for several months.Dr. O.J. Gutsch of Sheboygan, the first witness called, testified that Mrs. Dickrelwas suffering from illusionary religious insanity with homicidal tendencies onJuly 11, when he examined her at the Sheboygan county hospital for the chronicinsane.She had no organic ailment, except that the indications are she is an expectantmother, and that she had been undernourished, and was anemic. She was in a nervousstate and was depressed, Dr. Gutsch said. He declared she insisted she had not putpoison in the food.Mrs. Dickrell told Dr. Gutsch that she had a vision or session with the spirits inwhich she had been informed that Mr. Dickrell, as well as herself, were damned andwould be better off dead, he testified. She did not learn of her husband’s deathuntil July 10.The witness said that Mrs. Dickrell’s mental condition was not induced by the factthat she is to become a mother, although it was probably aggravated by thatcondition.She had been incoherent and irrational about ten months, he said, and hadperformed peculiar acts as early as the latter part of last October.Dr. R.P. Herwick, state toxicologist, testified that he had examined contents ofMr. Dickrell’s stomach and other organs and a sample of bread taken to him byCoroner Sonnenburg, as well as samples of flour and a can of arsenate of leadtaken by District Attorney Copp, and had found them to contain arsenate of lead.His conclusion was that Mr. Dickrell’s death was undoubtedly due to arsenicpoisoning. Bones of those who ate food containing the arsenate of lead withoutdoubt have lead deposited in them, he said.Dr. Joseph Mueller of Plymouth, who assisted in attending Mr. Dickrell before hisdeath and who also assisted in performing the autopsy following death, said deathwas without doubt due to arsenic poisoning. The kind of poison from which he wassuffering, however, was not definitely known until after the state toxicologisthad given his report after examining Mr. Dickrell’s organs and the sample of breadand flour.Dr. Mueller said Mr. Dickrell was in a stupor and beyond help when he was taken tothe hospital. No attempt was made to give him medicine to counteract the poison,he stated, because the poison had already taken its deadly effect.Dr. Fred Knauf of Kiel, who has known Mrs. Dickrell for about sixteen years,observed her failing mental condition during the past year or more, he testified.She had at one time been employed in his office, and he had treated her severaltimes since then. Late last winter, when he attended her, he noted a considerablechange in her mental attitude. She was highly nervous and apprehensive at the time,he stated.Dr. Willard Verbeck of St. Ann examined Mrs. Dickrell last March, and advised herhusband and her father to take her to an institution as the “best and safest thingto do,” he testified. Replying to a question by District Attorney Copp, thephysician expressed a belief that she might have been a dangerous type of insaneperson.Miss Elfrieda Schmitz of the town of Russell, who was employed at the Dickrellhome from April 10 until the Sunday before Mr. Dickrell’s death, stated that shehad started the bread making on several occasions, but was with one exception,always told after a certain stage in the preliminary breadmaking operations to dosomething else, and that Mrs. Dickrell would finish the task. On one occasion,Miss Schmitz prepared and baked the bread, she said.According to her testimony, Miss Schmitz became ill several times after eatingbread at the Dickrell home. She never suspected that Mrs. Dickrell was puttingpoison in the food, she said. She saw a can of arsenate of lead on a pantryshelf at one time, she stated, but there seemed to be nothing unusual about thatat the time.Miss Schmitz told of eating biscuists and bread made by Mrs. Dickrell and observingthat they had a peculiar taste.Mr. Dickrell complained about the bread’s taste to Mrs. Dickrell several times,and once bought baker’s bread, Miss Schmitz said.There was no discord between Mr. and Mrs. Dickrell nor among the neighbors so faras Miss Schmitz knew, she stated.Dr. Steven O’Donnell of Kiel, who attended the poison victims, said that Mr.Dickrell went to his office on June 22 and said he and his family were sufferingfrom a stomach disorder, and he wanted some medicine. Dr. O’Donnell prescribedmedicine for them, and on June 24 went to the farm and examined his patients,determining at the time that they were suffering from some sort of poisoning, heasserted. Mrs. Dickrell was mentally, but not physically ill, he added. He tooka sample of bread from the Dickrell home, intending to mail it to Madison forexamination, but in the meantime, Mr. Dickrell died, and the sample was turnedover to Coroner Sonnenburg, the doctor stated.Stewart Lindsay, a Kiel pharmacist, testified that Mrs. Dickrell bought an eighthof an ounce of strychnine from him on March 28, but later returned it. When heasked her what she wanted it for, she said she intended to poison rats, he said,and he told her there were other rat exterminators that were less dangerous, butshe did not want them.Dr. I.A. Walsdorf, a Kiel veterinarian, testified that when he visited theDickrell farm on May 19, Mrs. Dickrell wanted to buy some strychnine from him,but he advised her to use a less dangerous rat exterminator, and she decidedshe did not want anything.Joe Stanz of Kiel, who was employed at the Dickrell farm on June 23, told ofbecoming seriously ill after eating at the Dickrell home. He had two mealsthere, dinner and supper, eating a slice of bread that tasted peculiar at thenoon meal, but none at the evening meal.Joseph Klapperich of the town of New Holstein, Calumet county, father of Mrs.Dickrell, also told of the peculiar taste in bread he ate at his daughter’shome, and of finding a can containing a small quantity of arsenate of lead inthe cupboard at the Dickrell residence. He and Mrs. Klapperich both becameill after eating bread there, he said.The day Mrs. Dickrell was taken to the hospital, Mr. and Mrs. klapperich returnedto the Dickrell farm, and Mr. Klapperich suggested that the potatoes should besprayed, he said. Mr. Dickrell was ill, and Mr. Klapperich wanted the farm handto do the work. Mr. Klapperich said that when he asked Arthur Dickrell where thearsenate of lead was, Mr. Dickrell described the place where it should have been,but it was not there.“Finally, my wife and I found it in the cupboard,” he said. “She (Mrs. Klapperich)look at me and I looked at her. We both remembered that the doctor had told us thechildren had been poisoned. I told my wife to the get the bread, and I cut it openand hid it. Later, I went to Kiel and told the doctor what I had found and askedhim to come out,” he stated. “I showed him the bread, as well as the arsenate oflead, and he took the bread along.”Mr. Klapperich also told of advising Mr. Dickrell that because of her mentalcondition, Mr. Dickrell should take his wife to an insane asylum. He quoted Mr.Dickrell as having said that, if she were taken, he would go, too, and he said Mr.Dickrell cried about it.Mrs. Klapperich, mother of Mrs. Dickrell, gave testimony similar to that given byher husband. She added that her daughter had confessed having taken her childrenin the family automobile and intending to asphyxiate them. Her daughter had actedstrangely for a long time, the mother testified.Nick Dickrell, brother of Arthur, also told of hearing Mrs. Dickrell say she wantedto asphyxiate her children, and that she had bought some strychnine, intending topoison the family.The Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh WI)Sheboygan Press, Thurs. July 20, 1933, p. 1, c. 8.

Biography

Birth: Mary Klapperich was born on December 1, 1898 in Marytown, Fond du Lac Co, Wisconsin.

Death: She died on January 14, 1971, at age 72.

Burial: She was buried in St Anna, Calumet Co, Wisconsin.

Note: Mrs. Mary Dickrell, 71, formerly of the Town of Russell, died Thursday after a long illness. The daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Klapprich was born on Dec. 1, 1899 at Marytown, and was married to Arthur Dickrell in September, 1925, at St. Anna. The couple farmed in Russell until his death in 1933.Surviving are four sons, a daughter, four sisters and 23 grandchildren. A brother preceded her in death. The funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Anna Catholic Church, St. Anna, the Rev. Cyril Heeswyk, celebrant.Burial will be in the church cemetery. Friends may call Saturday morning at the Wittkopp Funeral Home, Plymouth, until time of church services.Sheboygan Press, Fri. Jan. 15, 1971, p. 14, c. 4(Note: Her tombstone has b. 1898.)